Countdown
by Diane Clifford
Summary: One shot. Toy Story/slight BLoSC realm. A space cadet comes home to his foreign planet, and is met by his one true love when he gets there.


**This is a fiction written for and at the request of littlemissmulan2011 as part of a swap we had going on (she's drawing a picture for one of my fics, I wrote a story for one of her artworks on deviantART)**

**This is my first forage into anything that dictates the BLoSC realm, but at the same time I took on a bit of a challenge and made the characters humanoid too, unlike the cartoons.**

* * *

_Halfway home, don't know if I can last  
Had another cup of coffee, put your picture on the dash  
Burning both ends and I can't go too fast  
Oh, I can feel the rhythm of the wheels going' round  
I play our song and I turn it up loud_

_Every turn, every town, every city, every minute I'm counting_  
_Five long days to you I sped_  
_Three thousand miles just to get to the one_  
_Oh oh, you know you're the one oh oh_  
_It's just five more miles, four streets ahead_  
_Three stoplights till I, I get to the one_  
_Oh oh, you know you're the one, oh oh_

~ from 'The Countdown', by Lonestar.

* * *

Alone in the cockpit of the spacecraft, Buzz Lightyear pressed the autopilot on the dashboard, getting up from the uncomfortable swivel stool that served as his seat in front of the controls.

Capital Planet loomed below him, large and bright. It had been years since he had been home. Another one of Emperor Zurg's wicked projects had sent him to galaxies many, many moons away, but there was one thing he had been sure to see to before he left for his mission.

He wondered, for a moment, what she was doing right now, as he pressed the button that would allow him to burn through the layer protecting their planet from asteroids.

Taking a final sip of coffee from the mug sitting in the holder, he looked at the picture on the dashboard of the spacecraft, and smiled to himself.

_Jessie._

oOoOoOo

Jessica Davies, or Jessie as everyone knew her, sat at the picture window. Her long red hair fanned around her shoulders as she brushed it out. Her eyes, however, were upturned to the sky.  
It had been years since she had seen that aircraft, but now here she was at the Space Command quarters on their home planet. The big window overlooking the runway was spotless, apart from her breath clouding it every time she got too close to it.

Jessie had perched herself on the windowsill, awaiting her space hero's return. He had told her when he had left, that he would be gone for 10 days. Space didn't have days, but their planet did...so he'd be gone a shorter time than he would ever realise.  
She looked down at the shiny object on her finger before starting to twist her hair into shape in a large bun, securing it behind her head. She smoothed the hem of her dress into place, taking care not to tread on it.

The movement in the sky made her jump up, place both hands on the windowsill and stare intently at the sky.

_Was that….?_

oOoOoOo

Stepping out of the shower on the spacecraft, Buzz dried himself off and wrapped the towel around his middle as he walked towards the wardrobe in his private quarters. He opened the door and looked at the crisp, starched, white military uniform hanging there. He had packed it for one reason, and one reason only before he left. He knew what he was coming home to do.

He dressed quickly, flipping open his watch and glancing at the dials on it. By his calculations, he had a little over forty minutes until his world changed forever.

Shrugging on his jacket, Buzz walked to the mirror in the corner, grabbing a box from the dresser as he did so. From it, he rescued three medals – all in gold but with different ribbons of purple, green and red attached to them. He glanced out of the porthole as he attached them to his lapel, stabbing his finger with one of the pins.

Cursing momentarily under his breath, he sucked the blood away before returning to look at himself in the mirror. _Thirty five minutes to go._

oOoOoOo

_Half a hour,_ she thought excitedly, _that has to be him!_  
She left the room and ran down the stairs, looking for the door that led out onto the tarmac. Everyone she passed looked at her strangely, probably because she was the happiest soul in the building right at that moment.

She finally reached the door, and tugged at the handle, standing in the doorway, casting her eyes back to the sky. The craft she had seen was getting larger, and she could see the distinctive emblems on the sides. She tried to keep from leaping up and down on the spot, distracting herself by fastening the white choker around her throat instead.

oOoOoOo

The gold buttons were all done up. They gleamed in the light reflecting off the mirror. Buzz smoothed the collar with the blue insignia on it and nodded to himself. He had to look perfect for this day.

Running a hand through his dark hair to slick it back, he walked back out to the controls and took the craft off autopilot. Twenty five minutes. _He would be holding her in his arms soon,_ he realised, as he guided the spacecraft down onto terra firma.

oOoOoOo

It took all of Jessie's muster not to squeal as the spacecraft seemed to hover in the sky, heading straight for the tarmac. She seemed to have been waiting ages, when in fact it had only been ten minutes..

She reached into the white clutch bag hanging by her side, taking out her pearl earrings, fastening them into her ears as she watched the spacecraft gently touch down. Only then did she step fully out into the elements, the wind blowing through her tightly coiled hair, rustling her dress, as she took a few steps forward, shielding her eyes to see better.

_"In twenty minutes, all my – our - dreams are going to come true!"_ She thought excitedly.

oOoOoOo

_Fifteen minutes,_ Buzz thought, as he put down the landing gear and hovered the space craft above the city below him. The control tower had him on their radar, and he was clear for landing shortly.

As he coasted over the roads and landmarks below him, Buzz pulled up on the throttle. The craft hit the ground with a dull thud, the wheels connecting with the runway.  
He could feel the motion under him, and he pulled the brake lever to bring the craft under control and guided it to a stop. As the wheels stopped turning, he glanced out of the porthole once again, and saw the flash of red and white darting into view.

It was enough to bring a wide smile to the naval pilot's face.

oOoOoOo

She sprinted down the tarmac, not caring how reckless she was being for not wearing earplugs in the spaceport grounds. She drew closer to the moving aircraft, which was starting to slow in front of her. The rotors stopped turning, and the landing gear was still at last. She stopped, about 5 yards from the edge of the craft.

A tendril of hair blew out of her neatly styled hair as the clunk of the spacecraft door opening met her ears. She pushed the rogue strand behind her left ear and waited.

_"Don't take ten minutes getting down the ramp. We have to be there in five."_

oOoOoOo

He glanced around the spacecraft as if he'd forgotten something. He caught a sight of himself in the window in front of him, and sucked in his breath. _"You look good, Lightyear,"_he thought with a wry smile. He never thought he would be about to do this.

The door of the craft activated, allowing a long, wide jet of light to stream through nearby him. He rose from the controls, pushing the stool out of the way, and straightened up. He started to move towards the light, and towards his future.

oOoOoOo

The sight of him appearing at the very top of the ramp made Jessie's heart catch in her throat. He looked so handsome, standing there in the bright light, his white military suit almost gleaming. The gold buttons around his neck and shoulders, she noticed, glinted in the reflections coming off the outside of the spacecraft.  
He started to descend the steps, only six of them, but each footstep he took seemed to go on for an hour apiece.

When he got to the bottom of the ramp, he turned and their gaze locked. He gave her a little smile, his eyes taking her in with amusement. She blushed, knowing her dress was conventional – except for the split right in the front middle. On her legs she wore just long black cowboy boots.

She forgot everything for a split second as he opened his arms to her, beckoning her with his fingers. She needed no further encouragement, the smile spreading over her face joyously. Before she could stop herself, her feet were hitting the tarmac as she ran towards him.

_"Buzz!"_

oOoOoOo

Her arms landed around his neck, his slim body pressed to his, and he held her tightly as they hugged for the first time in a week and a half. Anyone looking on from the windows would have thought he had been gone a year and a half, the way they snuggled into each other. She was the one he had waited for, and he knew she felt the same way about him.

With her wrapped around him like this, Buzz couldn't help but lean down and kiss his sweetheart on her lips, a kiss she responded to more than eagerly.

Jessie was first to draw back from the long awaited intimacy, and even then she only took a tiny step away. She was hardly being conventional with her attire, he noted, still amused by her overly ruched dress, but then, that was what he'd always loved about her, right from the start. And her legs, God, he could stare at them all day. He could stare at her all day, come to that.

He shook himself out of his thoughts, there would be plenty of time for that later. He took her hand as they walked off the landing strip together. They had to hurry.

_It was only five minutes until they had to be at the church._


End file.
